Read a full report of the Premier League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa
at Stamford Bridge on Saturday March 27 2010.

Not that it was ever really in doubt but Frank Lampard yesterday confirmed his status as one of the greats in the history of Chelsea football club.

With his four goals he reached a total of 151, becoming the third highest scorer in the history of the club, surpassing Peter Osgood and Roy Bentley. He has been a remorselessly successful player in the blue shirt: with this haul, 21 so far, he has now scored 20 goals or more for a sixth consecutive season.

“And that’s having a bad season…” said Lampard. “It’s one of them when it’s not easy to always be on top, top form. It’s opened up with the way we’ve played in the last couple of games, in particular. What can I do? I don’t want to sound overconfident, I’ve been playing in a very good team and I want to keep doing it, keep contributing like this at this level.”

If he continues to contribute like this, Lampard will soon be making more history. His next target? The 193 goals scored by Kerry Dixon, the second highest scorer in the club’s history. “He’s a great man in Chelsea but I’m sure he’ll be the first to shake my hand if I get it,” Lampard said. “I’m just glad to be part of this club’s history.”

He was not the only Chelsea man making history yesterday. John Terry wore the captain’s armband for a record 325th time and delivered an accomplished performance, bullying John Carew until almost helpless submission — it was only when he escaped Terry’s imperious orbit that he managed to score, ghosting in behind Yuri Zhirkov to tap in Ashley Young’s cross-shot. What a misleading goal that proved to be.

At that point Aston Villa looked competitive. Chelsea had taken the lead with 15 minutes played. Nicolas Anelka, starting in place of the rested Didier Drogba, pulled the ball back to the outstanding Florent Malouda, whose failure to control the ball actually set it up perfectly to be driven across goal. It shot low across the box and past the desperate slide of Stephen Warnock for Lampard to hook it in at the far post.

Villa were behind again just before the break. Zhirkov chased a cute Malouda flick into the box and James Collins trod on the Russian’s foot, prompting a dramatic collapse worthy of Nureyev. Still, it was a penalty and Lampard thumped the ball past Brad Friedel.

Around the hour mark, Chelsea stepped up the tempo and, in the words of Martin O’Neill, Villa “completely capitulated”. Deco feinted inside James Milner and then slid the ball down the left channel for Zhirkov and the Chelsea left-back pulled the ball back for Malouda to convert.

Five minutes later and it was four. Lampard scooped out a fine pass, Anelka nodded the ball into the box and Richard Dunne went crashing into the sprinting Zhirkov. Lampard stepped up for his hat-trick and placed the ball into the bottom corner, to Friedel’s right.

Chelsea were simply savaging Villa by now. With just over 20 minutes left Paulo Ferreira picked out Lampard on the edge of the 'D’ and the England player trapped and played a simple pass for Malouda to curl home with his right foot. That was the Frenchman’s fourth goal in two games and his 13th of a productive season.

For the sixth, Lampard fed the ball into Anelka who twisted and turned, dancing round Villa’s efforts to tackle, before picking out substitute Salomon Kalou. The Ivorian rolled the ball neatly into the bottom corner. Lampard then added his record-breaking coup de grace, slamming in his fourth after Milner had been unable to clear Kalou’s chipped cross properly. Seven goals, and all the while Drogba had his feet up on the substitutes’ bench.

Before this game Villa shared the best defensive record in the league with Manchester United. That was in tatters by the final whistle, along with the confidence of a side still hoping to qualify for the Champions League.

“It’s as devastating as I’ve had in the game,” said O’Neill. “I’ve been in the game as a player and a manager quite some considerable time and you get taught quite a few lessons along the way, but that was as tough as any, it really was. Finishing fourth? On that perform-ance we wouldn’t finish 44th.”

Chelsea now have a full week to rest while their title rivals compete in the Champions League. They resume, pumped full of confidence, at Old Trafford on Saturday in what is the decisive game in the title race.